Cass Elliot didn’t die eating a ham sandwich. But the lasting power of that urban legend speaks to a far darker story. Elliot possessed one of the most influential voices of the 1960s. However, while her big break with The Mamas and The Papas and meteoric career changed the LA music scene forever, it also entrapped Elliot in a cycle of fat-shaming, sending her spiraling into catastrophic weight-loss regimens. In this episode, we’ll talk about the music industry’s complicated relationship with weight, how crash dieting likely led to the untimely death of this music legend, and the true legacy of Elliot in pop culture.
This episode was written and performed by Lexi Pandell, a writer from Oakland, California. Her work has been published by The Atlantic, the New York Times, WIRED, The New Republic, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Playboy and many others.
Women of the 80’s (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 8)
Terms of Endearment (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 7)
Pretty Baby and a Playmate Murder (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 6)
A Star is Born (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 5)
Orson Welles, What’s Up Doc, Paper Moon (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 4)
Last Picture Show Love Triangle (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 3)
Peter Bogdanovich and the Woman Behind the Auteur (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 2)
“It wasn’t sexism, then” (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 1)
Sneak Peek: Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 1
Season Trailer: Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman
159: Vanessa Williams, Whitney Houston and Hollywood’s Misogynoir Problem (Make Me Over, Episode 8)
158: The Hemingway Curse? Mariel and Margaux (Make Me Over, Episode 7)
156: Esther Williams and the Birth of Waterproof Makeup (Make Me Over, Episode 5)
155: Passing for White: Merle Oberon (Make Me Over, Episode 4)
154: Marie Dressler, the First Female Star to Conquer Hollywood’s Ageism (Make Me Over, Episode 3)
153: Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Guru: Madame Sylvia (Make Me Over, Episode 2)
152: Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Surgery: Molly O’Day (Make Me Over, Episode 1)
Sneak Peek: Make Me Over
151: Splash Mountain (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 6)
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